I think this is not enough (for example you could send an SMS from the airplane)...

True, but that assumes that my wife has her phone on, and that we get cellphone coverage at our house (we don't!). It's much easier for her, as well, to chat with a full keyboard on the PC than to send from her handset.

Can also tell me which features the smartphone version of WinCE 5 will bring us?

I can't really comment on features in future releases. The PR guys would have my fingers We've shown a couple of developer features at events like MDC, but have not yet announced any dates or releases for them.

I didn't buy my phone from any mobile operator
i bought it completely free without any contract. i even also see during starting a screen that says 'Mobile Operator Logo', where my operator's logo should be if i'd purchased the phone over one.

Will the phones with Windows CE 5.0 have support for the european UMTS?

And which windows mobile version does the Whidbey CF target? Windows03 SE?

In your case you'd have to get the update from Motorola. As with Pocket PCs, all updates have to come from either the operator or the manufacturer.

Reagarding our next release I don't believe we've made any specific announcements around UMTS functionality yet.

Good question on the Whidbey release, I'm not sure. Ori's at TechEd, but I'll ask some of the other VSD guys and see if I can find out.

How is it in the rest of the world? I can't imagine European & Japanese consumers putting up with that kind of nonsense.

In general with mobile operators, you can use your SIM card in any cellphone. The SIM card itself does not have a lock, and your mobile operator really doesn't care what phone you use. All they care about is that you use their minutes.

What does happen frequently, including in Europe, is that the phone itself will be locked to a particular network. This is because the mobile operator has actually paid a portion of the cost of the phone for you, and they would prefer that you use their minutes
with that phone.

You can buy 'unlocked' phones on the web, even Smartphones, but they always cost more than the locked versions. That's because there's no mobile operator involved to help offset the cost.

Also, there are some countries in Europe where the subsidy of a handset purchase is prohibited by law. I believe in those countries locked phones are rare.

You can check out a sample chapter at
http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0321154894. It's a great read! Brad and a bunch of the other members of the CLR crew talk about the different design decisions made for each of the classes. The best part is reading all the places where they don't think
they did a good job.